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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26800774">To Be Normal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/clenastia/pseuds/clenastia'>clenastia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Characters are probably OOC, Feel Free to Adopt, Gen, Good Petunia Evans Dursley, One Shot, Why did this happen, i did not mean to write this, or itd better be, petunia accidentally joins the mafia, pre-series/pre-canon, skull is an evans, skull is lily and petunia's brother</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:41:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26800774</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/clenastia/pseuds/clenastia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Petunia Evans was the oldest child of the Evans family. Plain, boring, normal, nothing special about her what-so-ever.<br/>The same could not be said for her two younger siblings.<br/>But Petunia's still an older sister, and even if there's nothing else special about her, she can still be there for her little brother and little sister.<br/>Come hell or high water.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Petunia Evans Dursley &amp; Lily Evans Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>276</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To Be Normal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So I was reading a ‘Skull is Lily and Petunia’s brother’ fic, don't remember the name, but... there were some lines in that fic.<br/>And they gave me *ideas*.<br/>This story's completely different, of course. That other fic had Skull adopting Harry because he was of 'Lily's blood' too and all that, and this fic is pre-series, but I wish I remembered it's name if only to credit the author for inspiring me in the first place. I'll see if I can find it later. UPDATE! I found it~ the fic that gave me the idea was You Can't Take the Sky From Me by Lilymoncat!</p><p>But BEHOLD, YET ANOTHER HOT MESS OF A FIC FROM ME.<br/>This is only a one-shot tho because I literally have no idea what I'm doing. 100% up for adoption if anyone wants. Some ideas I had for this fic at the bottom/end notes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Her sister makes flowers bloom in the palm of her hand. It’s the most beautiful thing Petunia’s ever seen, and she spends hours in her bedroom, door locked, as she tries to do the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gets in trouble, when her mother finds all the plucked petals scattered across the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brother makes fire dance across his finger tips, but the first time she sticks her hand in the fireplace, she burns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her younger siblings shine with all the light of the sun, and Petunia is… forgotten.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily makes a friend with the grungy-looking boy down the street, who can do the same things she can, and Aster’s always as far away as he can get, running free and only returning for the promise of mother’s warm dinner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One day, Petunia thinks, Aster will fly away from them all, somewhere none of them can reach, a distant cloud to be admired but never touched.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So it hurts, more than she ever thought possible, when it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>Lily</span>
  </em>
  <span> who leaves first. Running off with that boy to a special magic school, so special Petunia isn’t even allowed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>look</span>
  </em>
  <span> at it, so special she isn’t even allowed to have any pictures except what Lily can draw by hand and that’s-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia always knew she’d lose Aster, her little brother too free-spirited to stay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She never knew she’d lose Lily too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She locks herself in her room, and refuses to come out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mother tries to bring her dinner, and she throws it and screams to be left alone, and tries not to hate it when she hears her parents whispering about how she’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>jealous</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily was her little sister! Mother let her hold her, when she was still so little, and talked all about how sisters stay together and how Petunia should protect Lily, and help her, and now Petunia’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>special</span>
  </em>
  <span> enough to even try-!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Special people are only allowed to stay with other special people, and Petunia knows now that both her siblings are going to leave, to be with people </span>
  <em>
    <span>like them</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and Petunia’s going to be alone, behind, never able to understand them because she’s not special enough to even </span>
  <em>
    <span>learn</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Even if Petunia tries to chase them, follow them, she’ll </span>
  <em>
    <span>be</span>
  </em>
  <span> with them. Not the way </span>
  <em>
    <span>their kind</span>
  </em>
  <span> can be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia doesn’t want to be special.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just wants to be with her family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And only special people are allowed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia weeps, and thinks that when Lily comes back it’ll be easier not to talk to her at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’ll just go away again, after all. And maybe it’ll hurt less if Petunia just stops chasing her now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two days later, she wakes up and finds Aster cursing under his breath as he tries to fix her half-melted door handle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wonders, through her exhausted hunger, where he learned them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He drops the door handle with a yelp when he sees her awake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia wonders why he hasn’t flown away from her too, yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Surely now that Lily’s gone, there’s nothing holding him here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In her exhausted sorrow, she forgets his age.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Aster scrambles over anyway, all but tackling her against the mattress as he hugs her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why’re you hiding, Tuney?” he asks, but doesn’t let go, hugging her for all he’s worth. “You promised you’d play with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thinks she remembers that, but she’s so </span>
  <em>
    <span>tired</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She feels like she might be a hundred, instead of just thirteen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Aster wants an answer, and-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s not gone yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even if she only has him for one more year, before that school comes for him too…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she tells him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You and Lily are special,” she says, voice flat with exhaustion, “and you’re going to go to special places. But I’m not, so… I’m just going to stay here. Alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thinks her parents will chase Lily, and chase Aster, try to stay a part of their lives even with the magic, even if they can’t understand, but… Petunia can’t do that. Can’t chase something she’ll never be allowed to catch and hold, so she’s going to turn away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A lifetime alone stretches out before her, and she’s too young and it’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>fair</span>
  </em>
  <span> but she isn’t special, and that’s just how it is.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’ll never be allowed to catch them, so she’s not even going to try.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Aster’s voice wobbles, like it’s on the brink of tears, and his arms squeeze tight enough to hurt. “No, you can’t! If Tuney’s not here, then who am I going to come home to! W-who’s gonna patch me up a-and chase off the mean boys who yell at me? Even if I leave, I’ll still come </span>
  <em>
    <span>back</span>
  </em>
  <span> an’ Lily will too-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For how long?” Petunia murmurs, even as she wipes the tears off Aster’s face. “You’ll get bored of me eventually, find new people to come home to, who are </span>
  <em>
    <span>like you</span>
  </em>
  <span>- I’m just normal. Average. Nothing special.” Her hand drops, and she glances away from Aster’s purple-purple eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re so brightly colored, the both of them. Like fey changelings, but even if that’s what they are they’re still her </span>
  <em>
    <span>siblings</span>
  </em>
  <span> and it’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>fair</span>
  </em>
  <span> the fey want them back but who is Petunia to fight them-?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe I want average.” Aster mutters back, just as quiet. “I don’t want fancy, special people. Cause I have you. You’re my </span>
  <em>
    <span>sister</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so you’re more important than all of them! So get out of bed. Please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia drags herself up, stumbling weakly down to the kitchen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the first time, she wonders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> ran, would her siblings chase her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glances up, catching sight of Aster’s smile as he piles her plate with enough food for three people, and thinks that yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They would.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Aster doesn’t get a letter on his eleventh birthday, at the end of February. Everyone’s surprised, and Lily sends a letter of her own back, promising to ask a teacher about it. Petunia tries not to be happy, because Aster </span>
  <em>
    <span>belongs</span>
  </em>
  <span> with his own people, but she can’t help if she hugs him a little tighter than normal.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Lily comes back from school trembling and horrified. Clutched in her arms are stacks of painstakingly-copied papers, transcribed from texts in the Hogwarts library, that she’d smuggled back against all school rules.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiles normally as she greets their parents, but the moment they’re home she rushes to her room, dragging Petunia and Aster behind her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia doesn’t want anything to do with this, whatever it is, but Aster stares at her, eyes wide and pleading, so she lets Lily have her way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And her world falls out from under her as Lily spreads out her papers and details what she found.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the books was supposedly from the restricted section, though Lily doesn’t say how she got it. All things considered, Petunia thinks maybe she shouldn’t ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The papers are all excerpts from various books, talking about a separate type of magic, called Soul Shades or Soul Flames or even the Fire Which Embodies a Soul in the especially ancient and pretentious texts. A type of magic that technically anyone can use, because it comes from the soul itself, instead of a second source, but almost no one ever manages to unlock it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Texts describing experiments done by magic users on muggles who awakened the power, texts about the kind of power a magic user who could also control their soul magic possessed, all sorts of stories and anecdotes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A historical document, penned in a shaky hand, describing a genocide against soul-magic users when they refused to abide by the Statute of Secrecy and join the magical communities, when they refused to promise that anyone who awakened the talent would be gathered and taken into the magical communities as well, willing or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single book, a formal comprehensive text on magical law, with one clause circled half a dozen times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Requiring all non-magical soul-flame users to be reported to the government to be ‘processed’ and documented.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily vibrates with a pent-up fury bound tight around a well of fear when she looks at her little brother from across the damning texts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was all hundreds of years ago, of course, but Petunia stares at the texts and wonders how anyone willing to do such a thing could call themselves good British men and women.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia again thinks of the fey, the ‘good neighbors’ and ‘fair folk’, called as such because to cross them even in the slightest was to invite their vengeance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wonders if the magic users are supposed to be Good Neighbors too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aster crawls over the scattered papers to give Lily a hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be fine, Lil! Psh, as if old fogeys like that are any match for Aster the Great!” he laughs, wild and free and infectious, and Lily laughs too as she hugs him back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a silly name!” She says between chuckles, and Petunia smiles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both her siblings are </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span>, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and they’re happy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glances down at the damning collection of papers as Aster complains, and frowns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even if she’s not special, maybe there’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> she can do.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>The hardest part, Petunia thinks, is finding them. She has no magic, and whatever strength her soul has is so weak, nothing to her brother’s, which burns so brightly, and that means no one </span>
  <em>
    <span>trusts </span>
  </em>
  <span>her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The magical population may not learn much from history, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>Petunia</span>
  </em>
  <span> pays attention.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Genocides don’t catch </span>
  <em>
    <span>everyone</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s always survivors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Has to find them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brother deserves to know his people too, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She feels out of place in this fancy, upscale bar. The shot glasses look like they’re worth more than her entire outfit, but Petunia’s learned how to act like she belongs, even when she doesn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eyes follow her as she marches up to the bartender, who her sources say is also the owner, as well as something called a Storm, whatever that means. Perhaps a special language among the soul mages, like the witches and wizards have for themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She clutches in her arms the same papers Lily once dropped on her floor, all those years ago, along with another stack filled with her own notes and discoveries.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s not sure if it counts as a violation of Lily’s Statute of Secrecy, but… she slides everything over to him, and takes a seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stares at her suspiciously for a moment, but flips through it all anyway. First quickly, and then </span>
  <em>
    <span>much</span>
  </em>
  <span> more slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He flips back to the beginning, and actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>reads</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia waits.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want?” the man asks, staring at her with some unreadable expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Information, with no strings attached.” She returns immediately, back straight as a rod. “So that one of mine has the chance to make their own choices.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were the words her contact told her to say, and it must have been the right thing, because the man nods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come back tomorrow - keep this for now, we’ll make the exchange then.” he slights her papers back to her, and Petunia collects them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nods to the bartender, and then she leaves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t let herself panic until she gets home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Did something she can’t take back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thinks it might be dangerous, but what could she </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Lily graduates in three days, and all she talks about anymore is joining the war, and wanting to tell her </span>
  <em>
    <span>pureblood lord of a boyfriend</span>
  </em>
  <span> the truth about her brother, and how she thinks Dumbledore suspects because of some question he asked her before Christmas hols and-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia had to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even if that something is just finding a place for her brother to run, if the magical world starts to look for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The roaring of a motorcycle engine snaps her out of her panic, and she finds herself smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She may not be strong, or special, or important, not to anyone but her family, but at least she can do this much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least she can do her very best to protect her little brother’s freedom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m home!” he hollers, then bounds up the stairs. “You won’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>believe</span>
  </em>
  <span> the trick I just pulled, Tuney, you should have seen it-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He barges into her room with all the carelessness he ever has, since that day six years ago, and trips over her scarf, discarded on the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aster goes down with a squawk that quickly turns to laughter, as he rolls to look up at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Busy day?” he asks, staring pointedly at her skirt, and she shrugs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something like that. What have </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> been up to?” she asks with a pointed tone, mock-glaring at him, and Aster chuckles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So Petunia sits back, and listens to her brother ramble on about motorcycle stunts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t really understand everything, but he </span>
  <em>
    <span>tries</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and so she does too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next day, she goes back to that bar and makes an exchange, and finds out that there’s really no place in the world for her brother to live freely, not even with the other special people like him.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mafia</span>
  </em>
  <span> stares back at her in cold black lettering, a condemnation, because no strings attached means something </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> different to a criminal than it does to someone like her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shouldn’t be surprised, she thinks. There were more than enough hints, now that she </span>
  <em>
    <span>knows</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brother would be no safer among criminals than he is trying to blend in with normal people, and Lily’s world is going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>war</span>
  </em>
  <span> and they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>asking questions</span>
  </em>
  <span> and this was Petunia’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>only hope-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia looks back down at the damning letters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’ll think of something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She won’t let the world take away her family, just because they’re special and she’s not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So she’ll think of something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Petunia won’t accept anything less.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I didn't plan it that way, but somehow as I was writing this one-shot, Petunia turned into a weak sky. She's not pure, she's not strong, even if she awakened her Dying Will she'd never be anything special, really. But she's still a sky, no matter how weak or impure. But that's also why I see Aster running into her room all distraught after she starts pulling away - because there's a bond there, however weak and fragile, simply borne from the fact that they're family and there's a love there that holds them together even when Petunia's flames aren't strong enough to even try and support someone like Skull.</p><p>I'd say if I had an end-goal for this fic, it would be Petunia deciding that if the world wasn't going to give her brother a place to be free, then she'd <em>make</em> one for him, no matter what. And like, she finds disenfranchised muggle-borns, and flame users who were forced into the mafia but didn't *want* to be criminals, and she'd just... make a Family for them. This puny, impure sky not even strong enough to hold any true guardians, uniting magical and flame-using people together under one banner just because they want a place to be *free*.</p><p>I dunno. It's a silly, pointless fic, that I think doesn't even fit Petunia's character at all, and would involve waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much work. So I don't wanna write it. But the idea was blocking me from writing Girl's Mind, so I had to at least get this much down.</p><p>Honestly, I'm torn on whether Lily would live or die in this fic anyway. Like, so torn. It could go both ways, and I have ideas for both. But I don't wanna write this story cause it would be HUGE if I did it the way I'm envisioning it, and starting ANOTHER epic-length fic is... not something I'm willing to do just now. Maybe I'll revisit this idea later.</p><p>But for now... I hope you enjoyed this weird little one-shot of mine? Even tho I'm sure everyone is OOC, it was fun to write at least.<br/>(and maybe now my brain will let me write Girl's Mind)<br/>(pls brain)<br/>(cooperate)<br/>Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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